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Ch. 4 Vocab Words
Term | Definition |
---|---|
nativism | hostility towards immigrants by native-born people |
skyscraper | a very tall building |
tenement | multifamily apartments, usually dark, crowded, and barely meeting minimum living standards |
political machine | an organization linked to a political party that often controlled local government |
party boss | the person in control of a political machine |
graft | the acquisition of money in dishonest ways, as in bribing a politician |
individualism | belief that no matter what a person's background is, he or she can still become successful through effort |
Social Darwinism | a philosophy based on Charles Darwin's theories of evolution and natural selection (humans developed through competition with the strongest surviving) |
philanthropy | providing money to support humanitarian or social goals |
settlement house | an institution located in a poor neighborhood that provided numerous community services such as medical care, child care, libraries, and classes in English |
Americanization | the process of acquiring or causing a person to acquire American traits and characteristics |
populism | a political movement founded in the 1890s representing mainly farmers that favored free coinage of silver and government control of railroads and other large industries |
greenback | a unit of paper currency first issued by the federal government during the Civil War |
inflation | an ongoing increase in prices and decrease in the value of money |
deflation | an ongoing decrease in prices and an increase in the value of money |
cooperative | a store where farmers buy products from each other; an enterprise owned and operated by those who use its services |
graduated income tax | a tax based on the net income of an individual or business and which taxes different income levels at different rates |
poll tax | a tax of a fixed amount per person that had to be paid before the person could vote |
segregation | the seperation |
Jim Crow laws | statutes enacted to enforce segragation |
lynch | to execute, by hanging, without lawful approval |